Alright. Here's the written first episode. Enjoy~ <3
“It’s really changed her. She just hasn’t been the same since.” A woman with graying chocolate hair tied up in a tight bun sighed. She paused, letting her tired blue eyes sweep over the two uniformed men sitting on the couch opposite her.
“Has she had any previous problems?” One asked.
The woman reached for the still steaming cup of tea on the table in front of her before answering, “My Sakura-chan? No. She’s always been the sweetest girl…an absolute delight. We’ve only had problems with the police once. My…my ex-husband…” She sighed and took a long sip of tea.
“Well, ma’am, we see this often in children, actually. The traum-” The officer stopped suddenly, cut off by the sound of quick, light footsteps descending the stairs.
When the footsteps stopped, a teenage girl was visible at their base. Her wide aqua eyes were cold, given an added feeling of darkness by the shade provided by her sweeping golden blond bangs. “…this is about Kito, isn’t it?” She whispered.
The two police stood up, smiling warmly. “Ah…you must be Sakura…”
Sakura narrowed her eyes angrily. “Why are you wasting time like this when he’s still missing!? Kito disappeared two weeks ago and you lazy fools are no closer to finding him than you were then!” She spat.
“N-now, Sakura…they have a lot on their plates…” The brunette woman, presumably her mother, began tentatively.
“I don’t care! This would move along so much faster if I just went after him myself!” Sakura cried. She spun on her heel and stormed back up the stairs.
A few moments of awkward silence passed until one of the officers murmured, “Mrs. Kankura…maybe we should come back some other time.”
Mrs. Kankura sighed, but forced a tired smile. “Yes. I believe that would be much better. For all of us.”
----------------------
“It’s completely ridiculous, Nyo-chan!” Sakura muttered, pacing back and forth in her bedroom.
Nyo watched her pace, her green eyes drooping as she tried to fight sleep. She let out a small noise to let Sakura know she was listening.
“Two weeks. Two weeks! You remember that little toddler that was kidnapped last year? It took them three days to find her! What, is there like an express line for cute little girls? Pathetic!”
Nyo absently listened to Sakura rant. She remained silent, her eyes finally closed.
“No. I don’t accept this. Kito and I grew up together! I won’t just let him go…” Sakura sighed and glanced at Nyo, her lower lip poked out the slightest bit. “I don’t suppose you have any ideas?”
Nyo opened her eyes slightly. The green orbs slowly trailed toward the window to her left, the orange light of late afternoon trickling through the thin white curtains.
Sakura followed her gaze. “Hm? What? …Oh, Nyo-chan, you are BRILLIANT~!” She cheered. The girl scooped Nyo up in her arms and spun the kitten around in a giddy dance. Nyo’s ear twitched furiously as the wind whirled past it until Sakura replaced her on the bed and began pulling bed sheets out of her closet. She laid them out and began tying the ends together until she had a sort of rope. With one end knotted tightly around her bedpost, she threw the rest out the window and scrambled down it.
“Why rely on lazy cops when you can go collect information yourself?” Sakura murmured to herself, a determined grin crossing her face as she set off down the sidewalk.
After two hours of searching, Sakura roughly fell into a black chair outside a café. She rubbed her eyes, reluctantly realizing that now might be the time to give up and go home.
“…and he really never came out?”
“Nope. That was the last time they saw him. But really, why was he dumb enough to go inside? That place is hanging on by a thread.”
Sakura barely listened to the conversation upheld by a passing group of teenagers. She vaguely noticed that they went to her high school, but other than that she was too disappointed to notice much else.
“Manae Kito…I only had one class with him. But he did seem like the outgoing type.”
Sakura froze. Kito? Those kids knew about him? They knew where he was?
The group of four teens walked past her, ignoring the shocked look frozen on her face.
“You know, my cousin dared me to go into that house once. I turned down, only because I had to be a good role model to my little bro.”
“What? You’re lying. You don’t live anywhere near the Kimamura place!”
The old Kimamura house? That abandoned one about a block from Sakura’s house? That place had been condemned years ago. Kito had gone in on a dare. What if…he was still there? Trapped?
Sakura gasped sharply and took off running down the street, her peers’ words fading into the night.
With the combined effects of the pale moonlight and the fluorescent street lamps, the house was unnaturally disturbing.
At least, that’s what Sakura thought as she gazed up at the large, decaying home. Its once brown walls were either incredibly dirty or molding in every spot. Half of the windows were shattered, and the front door was barely holding on by a hinge.
“Alright…alright…I can do this…” Sakura chanted to herself. “It’s just a house. What could a house do? Eat me? Ha! …well…it could always collapse…Gah! No! Must stay positive! I have to do this! For Kito-kun!”
Her determination renewed, Sakura boldly ducked under the yellow police tape that billowed in the wind. She marched up the creaky wooden steps and across the porch. Once she spotted the lion head knocker, her will faltered slightly. Even so, she took a deep breath and forced the heavy oak door open.
The first thing she noticed…was darkness. With all the windows boarded up, no outside light made its way in. From the small beam provided by the open door, Sakura was able to make out…dust. On every inch of the floor, hanging from the ceiling, even forming small hills in the corners. An asthma attack waiting to happen.
Sakura took a large breath of outside air before stepping forward and allowing the door to slam behind her. She jumped slightly, a startled yelp escaping her lips. This, of course, sent the dust flying, which lead to a high-grade coughing fit on Sakura’s part.
“Gah! It’s like Hell! Except instead of fire, there’s dust!” Sakura managed to choke out. She covered her nose and mouth and began blindly feeling her way around the large room. Eventually her hand grasped around the cold metal of a stair handrail. She let out a small, calming sigh. Climbing old, termite-infested stairs in the dark was probably not the best choice, but at this moment it was the only one.
“Here we go. Every journey starts with one step, and other such inspirational phrases.” Sakura breathed. She slowly lifted her leg and took a careful, precise step. It went this way for a while: step after agonizingly slow step. About halfway up, she started feeling a bit cocky. Things were going great. And the faster she got to the top, the faster she could find Kito.
And the sooner she could get out of this house.
Her confidence was short-lived, though. About three or four steps from the top, the ancient wood gave way. Sakura screamed as her leg slid through the jagged hole, dragging long, bloody lines all the way past her knee. She gritted her teeth against the burning pain; once it faded slightly, she was able to pull it back out. Reaching down to touch the wound, her hand came back smeared with crimson blood.
“Well…that’s a downer.” Sakura muttered, limping the rest of the way up the staircase.
When she reached the second floor hall, darkness reigned supreme. Once her eyes adjusted a bit, she was able to make out the vague shape of doors, but not much else.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped to the flickering orange light that trickled under the door at her immediate right. It looked like…
“Fire…?” She whispered.
A thoughtful pause.
“KYA! FIRE!” Sakura yelped, ignoring the searing pain in her leg and charging down the hall to throw the door open. She soon paused in surprise. The room was an average-sized bedroom, barren just like the rest of the house.
Well…except for the candles and large chalk symbol, that is.
“What…in the world…?” Sakura looked around slowly, her eyes trembling slightly. Who could have set this all up? The only person who had been in this house lately had been Kito. But there was no way he would ever do something like this. This looked like the haven of devil worshippers. What if it was? A band of Satanists, using this old house as a place for their gatherings? And how would they react if they found Sakura here?
What if they knew she was here?
“N-No…” Sakura gasped, forcing her nearly paralyzed body to retreat. Her legs trembled madly with every forced step backwards. Combined with the burning pain of her cuts, her left leg was in bad shape. Her knee buckled, sending her face-first into the floor.
Sakura groaned and opened her eyes. She gasped sharply when she realized that the hand she had used to touch her leg had landed on the chalk. As soon as the blood came into contact with the powder, it began to glow with a bright purple light. A sudden gust picked up, slowly developing into a full-force torrent.
“Eh…? Wha…” Sakura breathed as the light enveloped everything. Soon all she was able to see was a barrage of colors surrounding her. They swirled and danced past at a nauseating speed, leaving her mind too shocked and scared to process much else but the colors. Strangely, she could still feel the sensation of the wooden floor pressing against her body.
But that quickly disappeared when the colors faded and revealed a frighteningly high aerial view of a city.
“Wait…wha-ah-AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!” Sakura screamed as she began to plummet to Earth.
=========================
Warm.
That was Sakura’s first coherent thought. Warmth. And the feeling of something soft wrapped around her.
Bed?
Yes. It must be a bed. But where? As she woke up more, the scent of anesthesia and the ambient noise made her realize she was in a hospital.
Sakura’s eyes fluttered open. She slowly sat up and looked around the room. It was your average hospital room: equipped with medical apparatus and a below average television set. The entire room was colored according to a tan color scheme.
Sakura absently reached up and touched her head. It was pounding crazily, and her entire back was throbbing in time. “Jeez…what happened…?” She wondered aloud.
“I don’t know. You tell us.”
Looking up to find the owner of the voice, Sakura spotted a woman in her early twenties standing next to the bed, holding a clipboard. Her jet black hair was pulled up in a loose ponytail, allowing her brown eyes to be seen. A light smile grazed her lips. “I’m Nurse Iruna. You can call me Kurui if you like, though.”
“Ah…K-Kurui-san…where am I? What’s going on?” Sakura asked shyly.
Kurui absently glanced at her clipboard. “Faruna City’s Regional Medical Center. You had quite a fall. All the way from the top of the sky.”
“Wh-what!? How did I get up there?” Sakura cried, flustered.
“We have no idea. We were hoping you’d tell us.” Kurui paused and shook her head. “In any case, we should contact your parents. Where do you live?”
“Near Yuri Street.”
Kurui tilted her head.
“Tokyo.” Sakura added, her panic growing.
“Not sure where that is, either.”
Sakura gulped heavily. “I-I’m still in Japan, right?”
Kurui hesitated. “Maybe we should just get you to the Mistress. I’ll go check you out. Be ready to leave when I get back.”
Sakura nodded as the nurse left. She sighed and got out of bed, trudging over to the window. She threw open the blinds…and gasped. The city stretching out before her was breath-takingly large and busy. The buildings were all in the 30-story range, and they were all extremely modern looking.
“I go looking for Kito…and I find a city.” Sakura murmured to herself. “This stuff only happens to me.”
